East London

I've been here long enough now that I feel qualified to write about my reflections on my local area.

Bethnal Green Rd is a wonderfully down-market high street. There are street stalls selling everything from fruit and veges, to CDs, to bed linen, and the street sellers are out every day, rain or shine. Bought myself a hat from there when I lost my other one. It has a pom pom.

Apart from the standard shops - Tescos, banks, post office, traditional English cafs etc - Bethnal Green Rd has some odd stores, such as the pie and mash shop (which ONLY sells pies and mash. They do tea and coffee, but you're not allowed to buy a cup unless you also buy a pie!), the hot sarsparilla shop (they must sell something else as well, but that's all it says out the front!) and the many sari shops.

Bethnal Green Rd meets up with Brick Lane, so the Indian/Pakistani influence on this area is strong.

Been to a few restaurants on Brick Lane, and so far my pick is Sheba. Good food, cheap (we had 2 beers, 2 sofdrinks, 4 small vege dishes, rice & naan for about £20) and pretty good service. They were even nice about the fact that I left my purse, a pair of gloves and my Barbican shirt there (don't ask...!) The worst I've been to was Clipper. Fliss and I went there for lunch, it was a set menu and there were only 2 other tables there and it took more than AN HOUR to get served! Even the first course (samosas!) took 45 mins. Shithouse. AND they had a bottle of water on the table when we entered, which we assumed was complimentary, but NO! The most expensive water ever bottled. Must have been done by some holy men atop India's highest mountain. Or squeezed out of diamonds.

Brick Lane is also very trendy, lots of great bars, especially up the Bethnal Green Rd end. And a market on Sundays. My perfect area!

So come and visit me! Not that I have any room in my tiny apartment. But I'm going to be rich any day now and will have at least 2 guest rooms...!

And in terms of news, the short film I made last year is on the shortlist for the Guardian Youtube competition! So that's pretty funny. The Guardian article is here and you can watch the video here. There's even a nice comment from someone I don't know! At least I don't think I know them. The other comment (robg56) is somewhat less mysterious...